Rival threatens Bono

To the extent that this site has any thematic unity it’s based around the process of building a new class struggle mass party in Britain, the bathos of the far left’s attempts at self-aggrandisement and what a wanker Bono is. It may just be that he has a credible musical rival. Watching one of the…

Liam

July 20, 2008

2–3 minutes

It may just be that he has a credible musical rival. Watching one of the TV music chart shows to keep up to date with Dozy Rascal and Jay Zed I had my introduction to the work of Kid Rock. He’s doing pretty well in the charts at the moment with a song called All Summer Long. It’s a reminiscence about the good old days of 1989 which samples Warren Zevon’s Werewolves of London and Sweet Home Alabama. He lacks Zevon’s way with words as these lines irrefutably show:

We didn’t have no internet
But man I never will forget
The way the moonlight shined upon her hair

He’s not playing it for laughs and does seem to be genuinely as thick as that rhyme makes him appear. Witless lyrics are no obstacle to a making a great song but the imagery in the video is transcendently awful. There are the obligatory women in bikinis with the special touch that one of them has had hers made from a pro-slavery, racist Confederate flag. Kid does not do nuance and the viewer is being invited to work out where he stands on things.

Kid surveyed a swamp in what is probably some type of nature reserve and decided that the one thing which was lacking was a smug arsehole racing through it in a speed boat. He volunteered to be that arsehole and no persuasion was needed. Better still no acting was needed either. The boat has a flag at the back which I did not recognise the US stripes with a circle of stars and something in the middle. Perhaps it the National Association of Rich Wankers Intent on Destroying Nature.

Apparently he has been recording since 1990 and has sold 23 million albums more than me. Nevertheless we have to acknowledge a special ability when we see it and that video has catapulted Kid into the Bono league of singing, pompous arseholes – the crucial difference is perhaps that while Bono is a self-righteous, toadying, tax dodger Kid is a racist idiot – or at least an idiot who doesn’t recognise a racist symbol when he sees one.

To get the taste out of your mouth watch this instead.

30 responses to “Rival threatens Bono”

prianikoff

July 20, 2008 at 12:32 pm

“..racist confederate flag…”

Shooot!

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maeve66

July 20, 2008 at 8:45 pm

I love that you have had the luxury of being unaware of the wretchedness of Kid Rock. I wish I had had that joy for the past several years, although now, of course, I would know about him from your blog.

Prianikoff: Why the Steve Earle video? Because of the confederate flag in the background? I doubt he chose the venue in that — god, he’s so young there — and his politics certainly don’t reflect that, at all. But I bet Kid Rock’s do. Here, a quote from his Wikipedia entry (yes, I get a lot of info from Wikipedia): “Kid Rock and TBT cut a new song entitled “Warrior” for a National Guard commercial”

Thanks for the Violent Femmes video — I’d never seen them before (my video knowledge is scanty, really), though of course I’d heard them.

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almata

July 20, 2008 at 8:47 pm

prianikoff- Steve Earle has voiced his regret and said that he would never again appear with the flag. I’ve heard interviews with him where he talks about coming to consciousness around racial issues while in prison in the 1990’s. He has told his audiences to not fly them. When he came out he started openly associating himself with causes. He was a good friend to the Detroit Newspaper Strikers in the 90’s.

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Liam

July 20, 2008 at 10:26 pm

Priankoff – I would not like to be held to account for some of the things I said and did in 1986/7/8/9.

In 2008 Steve Earle is on the intelligent left of American politics and writing great anti-racist songs. Here’s a link to a video of him from earlier this year.

http://liammacuaid.wordpress.com/2008/02/19/steve-earle-at-camden-happy-as-a-motherukr/

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Darren

July 21, 2008 at 5:41 am

You’ve got Kid Rock all wrong. He’s a Direct Action Anarchist.

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prianikoff

July 21, 2008 at 6:59 am

Actually Parson’s band used to appear with a confederate flag on stage and that was after he’d left the Byrds because he wouldn’t tour South Africa.

Steve Earle was clearly never used it as a symbol of racism and his current views on the Civil War are expressed in “Dixieland”.

Of course, ‘Kid Rock’ simply seems to be an idiot!

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andyinswindon

July 21, 2008 at 9:12 am

The only thing in his favour is that he isn’t Sandi Thom.

I have ben particularly struck by the awfullness of this song – how is he not embarrassed to rhyme things with things, and long with long?

And we were trying different things
We were smoking funny things
Making love out by the lake to our favorite song
Sipping whiskey out the bottle, not thinking ’bout tomorrow
Singing Sweet home Alabama all summer long
Singing Sweet home Alabama all summer long

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prianikoff

July 21, 2008 at 10:54 am

Running with the “Dixie” theme, Little Feat nailed it on

Dixie Chicken

Not only was Lowell George very musically talented, but the Keyboardist Bill Payne remains one of the most in-demand players in the music industry

By a strange coincidence the drummer Richie Hayward was born in Clear Lake Iowa, a town with only 8,000 inhabitants, but an important place in rock ‘n roll history.

Remarkably, they’re still touring as a band a will play in Wiltshire this Friday.
Given the Clear Lake connection, another remarkable coincidence is that Don McClean is playing there on Sunday too!
Festivals, festivals everywhere this summer….

Trowbridge Festival

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charliemarks

July 21, 2008 at 11:05 am

Hey, hey, hey! Dizzy ain’t dozy: get this:

do my best to understand it but I’ve never got it
I watch the people slug it out and struggle in the system
But the end result’s the same whether a Muslim or a Christian
There’s so much hate in the world we’re fighting, what are we fighting for?
When the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting ignored

[…

Someones gotta have answers, someone’s written a masterplan
Cause I can’t see no sign of God’s involvement, this has gotta be man
So much madness in the world
So much evil and confusion
But there’s so much good as well
So there’s got to be some solution
So that means there must be hope
Maybe room for revolution]

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almata

July 21, 2008 at 12:07 pm

Kid Rock “raps” lyrics like this—

“And how can we seek salvation
when our nations race relations
Got me feeling guilty of being white”

“I’m an Irish lad, but don’t call me Clancy
I’m gonna rock it for Dixie to suit your fancy
Rock your pants off and party my dick off”

“I don’t steal from the rich and give to the poor
I take from my bitches from and give it to my whores”

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splinteredsunrise

July 21, 2008 at 2:06 pm

I know not this “Kid Rock” of whom you speak, but he does seem a bit of a tool.

Now, if I could only get local radio to lay off the Bon Jovi, we’d be making progress.

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Halshall

July 21, 2008 at 4:15 pm

Sorry, I looked in vain on this pod for the confed flag, did I miss something?
Probably.
Anyway this seems to be a parody of 50s rock, in particular Holly and the Crickets, whom I’m old enough to remember. They sound pretty naff now but were influential and popular for years after Holly’s death in 59. Small combo rock bands in the eary 60’s UK were very similar in style.
Holly was noted for being an anti-racist at the time of the early civil rights struggle in the US.
As far as the original Holly sound goes, it was (and still is ) a whole lot better than this trash.

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prianikoff

July 21, 2008 at 6:53 pm

“I was sixteen or seventeen years old…I was three feet away from him…and he LOOKED at me.”

Robert Zimmerman.

January 31st 1959, National Guard Armoury,

Duluth Minnesota

Left -> right:
Waylon Jennings, Buddy Holly, Tommy Allsup

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maeve66

July 21, 2008 at 10:28 pm

Damn. Did Buddy Holly really have time in his life to drift right? I’ll have to look at Wikipedia on that one.

I don’t know… I think Bob Dylan singing at a National Guard armory is not the same thing as Kid Rock making what amounts to a recruiting video for them.

Hahahahaha — see, looking at Wikipedia solves EVERYTHING: you weren’t saying they’d DRIFTED right, you were saying that the three of those singers were AT that National Guard Armory show, and Bob Dylan was in the audience. Got it. What a great photo. So damn sad, anyway. When I was five years old, “The Day the Music Died” was my favorite song, bar none. Of course, right under it on my personal popularity chart was the Carpenters hit “Top of the World”, so I am not sure what one can conclude from that. That my parents apparently listened to AM radio in 1971, I guess.

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johng

July 22, 2008 at 3:45 pm

Any discussion here about George’s support for New Labour? Not the usual carping cry whenever anything goes wrong, but it would be interesting to see what the self declared revolutionary wing of RR have to say about it (ie I’ve already heard what the right and centre of RR say).

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Liam

July 22, 2008 at 5:10 pm

John SR’s advice to the voters of Glasgow East can be found here

Glasgow East by-election – Vote Frances Curran SSP

That furrow was well ploughed on the SUN site and sometimes you just think life’s too short to go over the same ground.

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prianikoff

July 22, 2008 at 5:25 pm

Can this SWP-RR tittle tattle carry on somewhere else? Now, back to the thread, music….

By Catherine Vervier

“It is the summer of love of live music. A festival fiesta with more than a million fans paying to watch top-name bands at the 500-plus music events that are now held across the UK.
But as they put their hands deeper into their pockets for tickets, few fans will be aware that their cash is lining the pockets of corporate America; fewer still that some of it may find its way to support the US President, George Bush.
“Live music is booming,” says the Performing Rights Society (PRS), which estimates it will reap record-breaking revenues of £1.5bn this year in the UK alone. Riding the crest of this boom is Live Nation, the world’s largest live entertainment promoter.
The company has established itself as the predominant player in the UK festival scene, owning O2 Wireless, Download, Hyde Park Calling, and a controlling interest in Leeds, Reading and Latitude, as well as playing a big role in running Glastonbury.
The company, based in Beverly Hills, California, boasts that last year it brought together 64 million fans at 28,000 events in 18 countries. Its control of the industry includes its ownership of several venues, deals promoting shows at Wembley and the Academy venues, and artists ranging from Madonna to Jay-Z. ”

Independent on Sunday, 20 July 2008

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chjh

July 22, 2008 at 7:22 pm

Interesting that the article refers to Frances Curran as the socialist candidate – do SR think Solidarity aren’t standing, or that they’re not socialists?

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andyinswindon

July 22, 2008 at 7:50 pm

Wasn’t Buddy Holly an extreme racist who became less racist? I seem to remember that Holy was the first artist to refuse to play segregated audeinces.

But of course Elvis was also anti-racist, ironically as he gave the artistically best performance ever of Dixie.

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prianikoff

July 23, 2008 at 5:20 am

Holly’s success was due to his move towards rock and roll after supporting Elvis Presley.
He was also strongly influenced by Bo Diddley.
When he moved to the Coral/Brunswick label, he also moved to Greenwich Village and he married the Puerto Rican-born Maria Elena Santiago .
Buddy Holly and the Crickets were one of the first white acts to appear at the Apollo Harlem to a overwhelmingly black audience.
He probably had a bigger influence in Britain than the USA, where there were no cultural barriers to white artists covering black music.
Consequently many UK groups reintroduced black R&B into the US after the sanitised “Pat Boone ” and the post-draft Presley eras.
So, arguably, Holley’s overall contribution was to break down racial barriers in music.

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Adamski

July 23, 2008 at 7:56 am

The other barrier Holly broke down was that you could be a regular looking guy with glasses and still be a star.

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andyinswindon

July 23, 2008 at 10:25 am

Is that true Adam?

I mean Bill Hailey wan’t exactly a james Dean lookalike. Carl Perkins was a “regular guy”

As I understand it the US music scene before Elvis wasn’t that bothered about appearance.

For example Gene Vincent used to dress like he was an extra from happy Days before he came to tour in Britain, and it was the British promoters who were the image obsessed ones who put him in a leather jacket, etc.

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andyinswindon

July 23, 2008 at 10:26 am

Not to mention the Big Bopper.

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Adamski

July 23, 2008 at 11:15 am

Can’t think of many pop performers pre-Buddy who wore glasses onstage . . .

I did think of Bill Haley immediately after I posted my comment. But consider, many contemporary reports from young people express their disappointment that Haley turned out to be a podgy balding middle aged guy, then Elvis came on the scene.

I may be wrong, but many young musicians who couldn’t pull off the sexual swagger of Elvis said that they felt they could express themselves through rock and roll when they came across the nuanced melodic subtle styles of a guy with glasses.

To be honest, my rock n roll career didn’t begin in the ’50s, so I’m just reporting what I have read and heard second hand.

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prianikoff

July 23, 2008 at 3:12 pm

The other barrier Holly broke down was that you could be a regular looking guy with glasses and still be a star.

White guys, that is!

Bo Diddley

I actually bumped into him one day in the mid 80’s, when I was buying a carton of milk at our local minimart in Bloomsbury.
Quite surreal, as he was in his black ten gallon hat and square glasses!

“You’re Bo Diddley, what are you doing here!?”
“I’m on tour man”

He was banned from the Ed Sullivan show in 1955 after performing his signature tune instead of “16 Tons”.
So he was already well-known before Holly’s rise to fame.

On the subject of Elvis, his influences and significance are well covered in “Mystery Train” by Greil Marcus, which argues that the “Hillbilly Cat”
did more than just copy black music.
In fact there were already significant black influences on the country music of Jimmy Rogers and the Carter Family, and vice-versa.

Elvis first came to prominence on the Lousiana Hayride radio show out of Shreveport Lousiana, which also launched Hank Williams, George Jones and Johnny Cash.
He was quite nervous about meeting Bill Monroe there, because he’d covered his bluegrass hit”Blue Moon of Kentucky”. But Monroe actually his version and
re-recorded it in the same up-tempo style.

Elvis at the Louisiana Hayride

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bill j

July 23, 2008 at 5:48 pm

Not every pop star who wears glasses is a boring dresser…. Bootsy Collins.

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Ed

July 24, 2008 at 10:25 am

“But of course Elvis was also anti-racist”

Not according to Public Enemy.

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Liam

July 24, 2008 at 7:17 pm

I don’t think we can take seriously the opinion of any musician who disrespects John Wayne and Elvis Presley in the same song.

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entdinglichung

October 8, 2009 at 3:43 pm

according to http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/0,1518,653965-2,00.html (in German), he is one of this years candidates for the peace Nobel price ;-(

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Mark P

October 8, 2009 at 4:36 pm

I can’t believe that Liam missed Bono appearing at the Conservative Party conference!

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